Trunk-caster



G. B. SHONE. Trunk Caster.

No. 238,658. Patented March 8,1881.

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CHARLES E. CRONE, OF NENVABK, NEW. JERSEY.

TRUNK-CASTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 238,658, dated March 8, 1881.

Application filed April 15, 1879.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. ORONE, of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have made certain new and useful Improvements in the Construction of Rollers or Casters for Trunks, and the manner of securing the same to the trunk; and I hereby declare the following description to be a full and true specification thereof, reference being had to the drawings annexed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a portion of the bottom of a trunk with my improved construction of roller attached. Fig. 2 is a front view of the same roller separate from the trunk. Fig. 3 is a view of the mannerin which my roller is made and attached to a trunk in connection with a corner iron. Figs. 4 and 5 are detached views of the roller-carrying ears and plate, and Figs. 6 and 7 represent the construction of the fastening or outer perforated plate.

My invention relates to that class of trunkcasters in which the roller-holding lugs orlips are formed from one piece of sheet iron or plate, and held in position upon the bottom of the trunk by an outer perforated iron plate, which is secured to the bottom of the trunk.

In the construction of casters for the bottom of trunks it has been the practice before my invention, in some cases, to strike up the rollerbearing lugs from a flexible plate, and secure this plate directly upon the trunk-bottom, and in other cases the plate having these rollerbearin g lugs has been placed between a cleat and the bottom of the trunk, the lugs and roller being embedded in a mortise in the cleat, and then a metal plate secured on the outside of the same, so as to be even with and brace the spindle or roller-bearing pin; and I am aware that this last construction is described and claimed in Letters Patent granted to M. Schwerin, October 11,1870; but the object of my invention is to obviate the difficulties experienced in the manufacture and use of these ditt'erent constructions of casters, by combining two metal plates together without any intervening cleat, either directly on the trunkbottom or on the outside of the cleat, in such a manner that the outer strengthening or perforated plate rests directly upon and in contact with the roller lug-bearing plate, (the lugs of which pass through it their entire length,) and holds it in position either on the outside of a bottom cleat or directly on the bottom of a trunk.

In the drawings, A is the roller which is placed in position between the two lugs b b when the pin a is passed through it and holes in the lugs, so that when secured it will tend to hold the two plates B and 0 together.

In the construction of my caster, I first make the plate B, which has the two roller-bearing lugs 11 I), and may also have two wings or side strips, 0 c, as shown in Fig. 5. Then the plate U is made, having two slots, (1 (I, through which the roller-hearing lugs b I) of the plate B pass, after which the wheel or roller A is secured in position by the pin a, when the plate 0 is fastened to the trunk-bottom and thereby holds firmly in place the plate B by resting directly upon it, without any cleat intervening between the plates B and 0.

By this improved construction of the caster it maybe applied to the trunk without any mortising of the bottom cleat, and where acleat is placed on the bottom of a trunk the caster may be placed outside of the cleat and on it after the cleat is secured to the bottom; and in case the roller or pin or either of the plates get fractured or broken the caster may be easily repaired or removed and a new one placed in position without in any manner disturbing the cleat or removing it from the trunk-bottom,

which would have to be done in casethe plate with the roller-bearing lugs was placed between the cleat and the bottom of the trunk, and projected through a mortise in the cleat.

If desired, the perforated plate 0 may be extended so as to pass around and up the end of the trunk. as shown in Fig. 3, and thus also form a corner-iron; but I do not claim any invention in combining a trunk-roller with a corner-iron.

I do not desire to claim as my invention the device described or shown in the patent to J. J. Oowell, No. 186,990, of February 6, 1877, or any device in which the parts are necessarily cast metal, as is the case in said Oowells device, as my device is designed to be rapidly and economically made by striking the two plates up from sheet metal of a suitable thickness for being worked in such a manner and at the same time of the requisite stifi'ness.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A trunk roller or caster in which the roller lug-bearing plate B is formed or struck up from sheet metal and held in position upon the bottom of the trunk or upon the bottom cleat by an outer perforated sheet-metal plate placed directly in contact with it, which outer perforated plate is secured to the trunk.

2. In a trunk roller or caster, the combination of the sheet-metal plate B, having lugs b I), with a perforated sheet-metal plate, 0, when r 5 a trunk independently of any intervening 2o cleat, substantially as and for the purpose shown and described.

CHAS. E. (JRONE. Witnesses:

JAMES H. HUNTER, A. BELL MALOOMSON, Jr. 

